The Plunge Into Darkness
by Cathleen18
Summary: A blackout at the CSI building brings two CSI's together. NickSara.


**The Plunge into Darkness**

**Summary**: A blackout at the CSI building proves to be lots of fun (Pairings included in story)!

* * *

As light flooded around Nick and Sara's sleeping forms, both stirred out of their light sleep. When Sara remembered who she was lying next to on the break room couch, she looked up to see Nick grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Hey," he said, not attempting to move.

"Hey," she replied, moving to sit up.

"No you don't." Nick pulled Sara back to him, letting her rest her head against his chest. He drew tiny circles on her lower back with his index finger.

"Nick, we have to get up before Grissom sees us."

She spent another ten minutes trying to get out of Nick's tight embrace, eventually giving up. Nick laughed at her sudden stillness.

"I told you that you weren't getting up!"

"Fine, but I'm going to have to in a while. Shift finishes soon." Remembering what they got up to last night, she said "Do you want to come to mine later? We can finish what we started last night." She began to run her hand up Nick's chest, but Nick used his free hand to stop her.

"I'd love to, but stop that. It tickles."

Sara laughed as her reply, and then suddenly screamed, "Nick!"

Grissom was hovering above them. He looked unusually happy. "Hey guys," he cheered.

"Er…hey Griss," Sara said, sitting up and looking at Nick sheepishly.

"If you two have woken up properly, you have a case to solve." Grissom handed them their assignment sheet and left the room without mentioning the compromising position he found them in.

Sara stood up, pulling Nick up with her and she smoothed her wrinkled clothes.

"That was weird," Nick said, sorting out his hair and clasping Sara's hand with his.

"Yeah, weird. Come on, we'd better get going." She pulled Nick from the room.

**The Beginning…**

"Hey Warrick, do you want me to take anything to the DNA lab? I'm headed over there."

"Nah man, I'm cool. Just going to head over to the station. I have a suspect to interrogate." Warrick pulled his jacket on and walked out the door calling, "See ya mate."

"Yeah, bye." Nick absentmindedly stared at Sara's locker. Only when everything went black did he turn away. "What the f?"

He felt around for his locker and pulled out the torch he kept in it for emergencies. He flicked it on and walked out into the corridor. Almost on cue, the back-up power turned on, bathing Nick's body in a light yellow light. It was just bright enough to see where you were walking.

He looked into the break room, and saw how dark it was. The light outside hadn't lit up the room and there was no back-up power in there. "Wasn't Sara in here about ten minutes ago?" he said to himself, making a move to open the door.

When he was in the room, he flicked the torch back on and ran it around the room quickly. It settled on a small, shivering form in the corner by the black cupboards.

"Sara?" he whispered, attempting not to startle her.

The figure looked up and exclaimed, "Nick?" It **was** Sara. "Is that you Nick?" Her voice sounded panicky and close to breaking.

Nick went towards her and settled on the floor next to her. "Are you Ok?"

Sara turned around on the spot and flung her arms around him, settling in his lap. "No," she was crying, "I hate the dark. When the power went out, I got so scared."

Nick put his arms around her petite waist and tightened his hold on her gently. He never knew this about Sara and felt a sudden need to protect her.

"Hey, hey. I'm here. I'll look after you." He tentatively stroked her back, soothing her.

Letting go for a second, he reached for his torch and brought it closer. He sat Sara back on the marble floor and stood up. Nick put the torch on the table surface, facing towards the ceiling. It had the desired effect and lit up the room, but barely.

Sara was still sitting on the floor and when Nick sat back beside her; he saw the haunted look on her face. He opened him arms and Sara leant back into him, resting back on his lap and sighing. "Thank you," she whispered, sniffing and clutching his hand tightly.

"It's no problem. Shall we move to the couch? It'll be more comfortable." He felt Sara nod into his chest.

He slipped an arm around her back, letting her place her arm around his shoulders and lifted her up. He guarded her over to the couch and sat both of them down carefully. Sara felt flaccid in his arms, cold to the touch and small in presence.

"Sara, talk to me. It'll help keep the fear at bay," Nick encouraged her.

"Do you want to know why I'm so scared of the dark?" Sara sat up, building the strength in her body.

"If you want to tell me," he clutched her hand, never letting go.

"I was four years old. I lived at home with Mum and her new-boyfriend. Dad had left when I turned two, or so I was told. Anyway, neither cared much for me. They left me home on my own whilst they went partying. It was dark as I couldn't reach the light switch. I had no food to eat as I didn't know how to cook. I didn't know what food was for me or not. They'd come back in the early hours of the morning; around 3am, when it was still dark. Both being as drunk as they were; they'd hit me 'unintentionally'. It scarred me for life." Sara sighed and fell back into his arms. She wiped a few tears away.

Nick reached up and cupped her cheek. "I'm so sorry." He wiped a few more tears away and kissed her forehead.

"Why are you sorry? You did nothing wrong."

"I'm just sorry for what happened to you. It shouldn't have happened to you." He kissed her forehead again and sighed himself.

"But it did, and I learned to live with it. I moved out at 16; stayed with my best friend and her family. They took care of me. Helped me build up my trust in strangers and people in general." Sara looked up to Nick's face, barely making out his features.

As the light was shining on Sara's face, Nick could see the shine of tears on her red cheeks. He could see the quiver in her bottom lip. Sara looked away when she realised that Nick was watching.

Nick cleared his throat.

"Nick, can you keep this to yourself? I don't want pity off people, and I don't want Grissom to give me special privileges," Sara said pleadingly.

"Sure Sara. I'll keep it quiet, but don't you think you should tell him? I mean, I agree with you about Grissom being a whole git about things, but if he knows, he'll help."

"'Grissom' and 'help' should not be in the same sentence. I know what you mean though. But I just don't want him to keep me off cases because of my past. Please Nick, I wouldn't ask if I didn't know what I wanted."

"Ok Sara. If that's what you want…" Nick drifted off and rested his chin on top of Sara's head.

"Yes it is," she said sleepily.

Before Nick was able to get comfier; Sara had fallen asleep in his arms, head buried in the crook of his neck. It felt nice to have Sara in his arms, but he knew that his arm would go numb if Sara continued to lean against it.

"Hey Sara," he whispered in her ear.

"Yeah?" she said, not opening her eyes or moving.

"Do you want to lie down on the couch? I can sit on the chair." Nick moved Sara off him and laid her on the couch, but as he moved to sit on the chair opposite, he felt Sara's hand grab his wrist.

"You can lie next to me if you want to." Sara opened her eyes and looked at Nick.

"Ok."

When they were both comfy - Sara on her right side facing Nick, Nick on his left side facing Sara with his arm around her waist, to a) keep himself on the couch, b) keep them both warm and C) because he wanted to – Sara leant closer to Nick and kissed him on the lips.

It was short and sweet, but it had the needed effect. Nick opened his eyes wide and saw Sara staring at him. Before he knew what was happening, Sara had leant closer again, and kissed him harder this time. Nick returned the gesture, moving his body closer to hers.

As the kissing got heavier and more passionate, Nick pulled apart and said, "We can't do this here. The lights could come back on. Someone could walk in. And I know that I'm too tired tonight."

"Yeah, I agree. Got a little carried away." Sara kissed him sweetly and closed her eyes. "I love you Nick," she said, opening her eyes back up and seeing a smile spread across Nick's face.

"I love you too!" He closed his eyes, a grin still plastered on his face.

Sara reached behind them and switched off the torch.

"I don't need this anymore," she said.

Her demons weren't about to get her anymore.

END


End file.
